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| vintage parlor style lamp |
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| antique painted rose oil lamp |
This has been an exciting week kitchenwise. First with the arrival of our green coffee beans .. then the wheat grinder .. and today my supply of Tattler reusable canning lids. Come payday I'm off the get the wheat berries and give fresh ground wheat a try.
I had such a nice quantity of milk kefir grains (see previous post) that I started to research about using them to make flavored water kefir. The grains were divided: half continue to make milk kefir .. and the other half have been designated for water. So far I'm on my second quart of fermenting the water variety. I used fresh organic ginger and some organic lemon peel to flavor the first batch .. it came out very refreshing .. now to try it on the family :). The second batch I hope to flavor with some tangerines. Soon I'll post some pictures with directions.
The seeds that were sprouted earlier this week are ready to use in salads .. and I'll start on a second batch to sprout. They greatly add flavor and crunch to our meals .. as well as good nutrition.
Last year I injured my right shoulder installing 6 foot metal T-steak posts and fencing around our three fruit trees (to keep the moose out) it has bothered me for about nine months. Well .. after amping up my use of the milk kefir, calcium tablets made from seaweed, and consuming bone broth soups, it is finally on the mend ... just in time for the coming gardening season. If you have the time .. it's well worth the effort to make your own rich soup stock.
Broth Is Beautiful
Taking And Making Stock
Bone Strength Calcium Supplement
Tattler Reusable Canning Lids
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| Indian Summer & the clothesline |
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| second crop of berries |
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| bialy (roll) dough |
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| autumn colors still lingering |
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| some of today's garden pick |
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| Photo by Mrs. Mac |
Since building our home in 2007, I have been very disappointed in some of the kitchen appliances. We did not buy cheap .. but middle of the road quality/price. To date, my microwave, dishwasher, and fridge have all needed some repairs. Even the range, which had an electronic starter go on the fritz has been worked on. Our high efficiency washing machine purchased in 2004 was replaced in 2006 with a less high tech model that uses more water and has no electronic brain. I'm not sure the dishwasher will get replaced anytime soon should it completely go kaput; I can envision a nice calico curtain on a rod with storage shelves for my cast iron pans in this space. Product quality seems to have been replaced with customer no-service .. or at the least ... expensive repair bills (or extra insurance policies) that are about half the original cost of the product. We need to re-invent quality USA made products instead of importing junk. How did our country come so far as to send a man to the moon ... and yet have such poorly made foreign products for sale .. and a HUGE percent of the population out of work? Government manipulation, big unions, and a less than united front in the workforce have contributed to this demise. My pocketbook has been emptied .. but no more. This same trend has not been just for large ticket items. I have had countless small appliances (shall I mention coffee makers) that have stopped working just as the warranty expired. Next up will be my rant about dinner plates!
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We had a rip roaring bon fire yesterday ... fueled by tree trunks that were strewn on our property probably when the neighborhood road was put in. Massive trunks ... uprooted ... eyesores that were cut up and hauled to our fire pit to burn. We gave ourselves five years to clean up the property and turn it into a natural park like setting, with our well manicured front yard and home carved out of the wilderness. Our yard is a work in progress. I have a vision of a small vineyard along one side that will displace some of the grass. It's enjoyable to take the time to get a feel for the layout and develop the landscape after living on the land for awhile.
This past week found plenty to do around the Thrifty Garden/Home. Weeds galore ... of the noxious variety ... the type we are encouraged to eradicate from our property. So .. with a steel blade, hand held gas grass cutter, I traversed the hills around our home knocking down the offenders. It's impossible to pull them all by hand without the help of a small army; and I refuse to use any chemical sprays. This is an ongoing war of the weeds. For the past few years I have attacked different areas ... cutting them down to the nubs so I can get a mower in to keep them in check. (These weeds are only in areas that have had the soil disturbed from grading years ago.) In the areas that have previously received this knock-em-down-keep-em-mowed treatment, some non-invasive native plants and grasses have started to take over. I have a feeling this battle will be going on for a long while. Thank goodness for Sunday and a day of rest.
Read more...... Mrs. Mac has been busy cleaning up after a horrific windstorm on Monday ... mowing and reseeding parts of the lawn, canning baked beans and making lists of what needs to be canned or frozen for this coming winter. Spring ... the real spring ... where are you?
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I'm starting to research grain/flour mills for home use. If you have a flour mill at home and are pleased with it, please let me know what type you have and the best/worst features about it. In the near future, I'll probably start sprouting some of the grain and semi drying it before grinding. Not all mills can handle this type of process, that's why I need some input.
Wendy asked yesterday just what type of meals I could make with my weekly list of groceries posted on Monday. First off, our pantry and freezers are stocked with items such as beef, chicken, pork and frozen fresh water Alaskan salmon .. as well as frozen and canned veggies and berries. We have dry beans/legumes, short grain brown rice, dry oatmeal, healthy oils such as olive and coconut, dried garden herbs, tea, coffee, dried fruits, etc. I keep these supplies stockpiled and restock anything that starts to hit the bottom of the barrel. Cooked beans are frozen and bread is baked about every third day. This makes it easy to put together almost any meal with very little weekly shopping.
Once a week I make a big meal on either Monday or Tuesday. Extra food is prepared to have enough to make use of the following day in either some type of hash or fried rice dish. I cook one big pot of rice to last for three or four meals during the week. Last night we had a pork loin roast, brown rice with mushrooms and herbs, seasoned cooked green cabbage. Tonight I'll chop up the pork and cook it with some onions, bok choy, carrots and the left over cabbage and rice for a stir fry dish. I don't plan meals too far in advance ... however, I do plan our dinner in the morning so I have plenty of time to thaw out any frozen meat .. or soak beans the day prior to cooking. Buttermilk is made every other day and used for veggie dips, and as a main ingredient in frozen berry smoothies for breakfast or a snack. I doctor up recipes to suit what is on hand.
Hubby set up my garden sink today. More work is needed .. and then I'll post a few pictures. Mrs. H, from Subsistence Pattern stopped by for a friendly chat ... and exchange of goods:) She got home made soaps, a packet of watermelon seeds and a knit dishcloth. I got from her some garden plants (a secret delight was the horseradish roots:) ...a regular old time neighborly swap meet.
It's a drizzly day in the North Woods. Mr. Mac and I have a day without the responsibility of children at home ... a day to go to town ... to purchase a sink to set up outside near the garden with a little weatherproof counter space to handle the dirty work of cleaning garden produce.
Last week I cooked breakfast at my MIL's home. The skillet used for frying eggs is a non-stick skillet. A very old non-stick pan at that. Its surface was compromised with flaking and scratches. I was so hungry and went ahead and used it. All the while dreaming of my cast iron skillets back home (sigh;( There are so many controversies about using non-stick pans that I ditched my old ones a few years ago and replaced them with a nice set of non-coated-stainless-steel ones. These are in addition to my (3) cast iron skillets, griddle, grill pan and Dutch oven. When properly seasoned, they are non-stick. Some studies report that using cast iron for cooking can help impart iron to your diet.
Update: This post is featured at Down To Earth ... For more kitchen sink photos, visit here.There are a few inside household 'chores' that are required several times a year in a thrifty home. One that is on my 'to do' list is emptying my kitchen's pantry closet; sorting, tossing out, and reorganizing food staples. Cleaning toast crumbs from the toaster ... and the ones that fall through the white wire shelving and land on the floor. Checking for expiration dates, any sign of pests in the opened goods, and rotating canned goods having oldest near the front of the shelf. This plan is in the 'brain .. wait and see .. when the mood strikes ... mode' for now. But at least if I commit it to a blog post, the thought will nag at me until it's completed ... please hold me accountable and ask in about a week or two if I've completed this task :)
Our supply of frozen and canned summer veggies is dwindling. Next year it will be necessary to better judge how much to store away for winter. And, perhaps, I'll try my hand at some garden row covers to protect autumn plants to extend the growing season. My experiment of growing lettuce in the basement with a grow light is still in progress. Some of the plants now have four leaves and look sturdy. We're down to our last jar of basil pesto ;(
With the cost of water, soap, and power ... I've been cutting back on washing as many loads of laundry each week. I used to wash about 12 loads a week. Now I'm down to seven. How'd I do it? First, I really had to get after a grown adult child about using one or two clean towels a day. Now she gets one per week. Next, I have been 'pre-drying' damp towels by simply hanging them in the laundry room ... then tossing into the hamper until I have a full load. Washing just one or two loads most days makes the work less demanding on the weekend. To further cut back on electricity, I partially dry everything for 10 minutes in the dryer and hang them to finish drying. Hubby and a friend are helping to install some clothes lines in the laundry room. Plus with the purchase of a rolling laundry rack, it makes it much easier to dry clothes this way in the winter.
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